Setting Out After Dark

I can’t leave them just yet.  They have taken up residence in my heart.  Their despair and disappointment have lived in my heart when life, when Jesus, didn’t show up in the way I thought he should.  It seems he prefers to reveal himself in amazingly more wondrous ways.

“Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.  They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.”  Luke 24:31-35

God was getting ready to birth a work in Jerusalem.  The two on the road to Emmaus were headed in the wrong direction.  Jesus wanted them in community, with those he was going to pour out his Spirit.  He didn’t want them to miss out, they had been faithful followers.

Jesus went to them delivering hope and encouragement.  These two were so excited about the truth that Jesus was alive they set out after the hour for travel.  It could be a treacherous journey to travel at night.  They had just seen the risen Jesus, the one who was crucified, so their fears of death were banished.  Their only thought, return to Jerusalem to deliver the same hope and encouragement to the followers of Christ there. 

Jesus is alive and continues to work to this very day.  The hour is growing dark.  I don’t always understand the way God works, I just trust, believe, that he is in control and working all out for his good purpose.  The Spirit gives hope and encouragement to travel the treacherous journey through this world.  How do I know?  He has given in abundance, his hope and encouragement, to me through these two and this walk to Emmaus.